NACOGDOCHES, Texas — In its first season back in the Southland Conference in 40 years, the ACU Wildcats suffered their fair share of heartbreaking losses, including in the season-opener at Georgia State.
So it was poetic justice for the Wildcats that they would end the 2014 season Saturday by breaking the collective hearts of their opponent.
Stephen F. Austin – playing with a chance to stay among the league leaders and still vying for an NCAA Division I FCS playoff spot — gave up 256 rushing yards to ACU redshirt freshman running back
De'Andre Brown and saw Jordan Wiggs miss a potential game-winning 27-yard field goal with 1:19 to play as the Wildcats knocked off the Lumberjacks, 37-35.
The win washes away the sting of narrow losses to Georgia State (38-37 on a field goal as time expired), Northern Arizona (27-21) and Lamar (24-21 after ACU led 21-10 late in the fourth quarter). The victory also pushes ACU to 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the Southland Conference, securing the program's record ninth straight season with at least a .500 record, breaking the record established from 1938-48 (missing three seasons because of World War II).
"We've had some tough losses, but we've also had some unbelievable wins," said ACU head coach
Ken Collums, who improved to 19-15 in three seasons. "We've got a lot of guys who will fight and will compete for 60 minutes. We've still got a lot to prove in the Southland Conference, but this was a good way to end the season."
ACU had to rally twice in the second half to pick up arguably its biggest win of the season. The Lumberjacks (7-4 and 4-3) trailed 26-21 at halftime, but came out on its first drive of the second half and put together a six-play, 66-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a 39-yard touchdown pass from Zach Conque to Tyler Boyd to put the 'Jacks on top, 28-26.
After the teams exchanged punts, the Wildcats had to start inside their own 1-yard line. But on second-and-9, Brown shook loose for a 53-yard run to get ACU out of trouble. One play later, Brown completed a 13-yard pass to
Noah Cheshier out of the Wildcat formation, and then on third-and-2 from the SFA 23-yard line, Brown picked up a big first down with a 5-yard run.
One play later, Brown scored from 18 yards out — again out of the Wildcat formation — to give ACU a 32-28 lead. The Wildcats then went with a little bit of razzle dazzle on the 2-point play as quarterback
Parker McKenzie moved to behind right tackle
Riley Mayfield as if to change the play. The ball was then snapped to Brown, who handed off to
Cade Stone coming around the end. Stone then flipped it to McKenzie, who caught the ball for the two points to put ACU up 34-28.
The Lumberjacks answered on their next drive as they pounded the ball down the field with the run, throwing only one pass on an eight-play, 76-yard drive that took the game into the fourth quarter. Gus Johnson — the league's leading rusher with 1,282 yards going into the game — finished the drive with a 31-yard touchdown run to give SFA a 35-34 lead with 14:25 left in the fourth quarter.
After ACU was forced to punt on its next possession, the ACU defense stood up and forced a three-and-out, thanks to a pair of tackles from
Justin Stephens. The senior linebacker finished with a career-high 16 tackles and wore the No. 17 worn by his father, Stan Stephens, when he quarterbacked the Wildcats in the late 1980s.
SFA punter Nick Bruno only got off a 16-yard punt to the Lumberjacks' 41-yard line to give ACU great field possession with 9:14 to play and only trailing by one point. The big play in the drive was a pass interference call against SFA cornerback Maurice Poulard on ACU receiver
Cedric Gilbert.
Nik Grau then capped the drive with his third field goal of the game, a 31-yarder that gave ACU a 37-35 lead with 5:48 left in the game.
The Lumberjacks started their next drive on their own 10-yard line and were staring at second-and-21 after a
Travis Tarver when Conque hit Boyd for a 26-yard pass play to get them out of a hole. SFA then methodically moved the ball down the field, milking the clock at the same time because ACU was down to one timeout.
But on third-and-7 from the ACU 9-yard line, Conque was hurried by
Nick Richardson and his thrown went out of the back of the end zone to stop the clock and force the field goal attempt. Wiggs pulled the ball wide left to leave the Wildcats ahead, 37-35.
On ACU's ensuing possession, Brown broke off a 24-yard run, but ran out of bounds to stop the clock. Armed with three timeouts, SFA was able to stop the clock three times, including one final time after a Brown run with 11 seconds to play.
Austin Kilcullen got off his best punt of the day — a 42-harder angled toward the corner — to pin the Lumberjacks back at their own 8-yard line.
Richardson — who had one sack in the game to finish second all-time at ACU in that category with 32.5 — put the cap on his great career by hurrying Conque into an incompletion on the game's final play.
Johnson got the scoring started for SFA when he capped his team's opening drive with an 8-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter. Brown answered just three plays later when he burst up the middle for a 66-yard touchdown run to tie the game, 7-7. Grau hit his first field goal on ACU's next drive to make it a 10-7 game.
The teams traded scores through the second quarter before ACU put the final nine points of the half on the board to take a 26-21 lead into halftime.
Brown's 256 yards are the seventh-best single-game total in ACU program history and make him only the third running back in school history to top 250 yards in a game, joining Bernard Scott and Don Harr in that exclusive club. He finished the season with 961 yards nine touchdowns after he rushed for three touchdowns Saturday.
McKenzie was very efficient for the Wildcats, completing 19 of 29 passes for 267 yards and one touchdown as he became just the sixth quarterback in ACU to throw for at least 3,000 yards in a season. He finished the season with 3,084 yards and 22 touchdown passes to join Billy Malone, Mitchell Gale,
John David Baker, Rex Lamberti and Clint Longley as the only quarterbacks to top 3,000 yards in a single season.
Jace Hudson had 105 yards and one score on five catches, while Stone was effective with 64 yards on five catches.
Demarcus Thompson finished the game with four catches for 66 yards to give him 120 career catches, which moves him past Johnny Knox and Cle Montgomery (118 catches each) for 10th on ACU's all-time receptions list.
Aside from Stephens, freshman middle linebacker
Sam Denmark had 12 tackles, including one sack, while
Justin Stewart finished his career with 10 tackles.
Angel Lopez — also playing his final game — had nine tackles, while another senior,
Chris Summers, had eight tackles. Richardson had six tackles, one sack, one forced fumble and two quarterback hurries in his final appearance as a Wildcat.
